Response to Claims

Hi Everybody

Firstly, I'd like to start by saying how seriously I take these allegations of fraud. I am not manufacturing baggies, selling resealed baggies or even knowingly re-selling fake baggies.

I value Frank's knowledge on the subject of baggies and want to believe that he and the team's concerns are well intentioned and in the interest of the hobby. However, I do wish they had contacted me directly to me to clarify these concerns as I have been in regular contact with Frank and several of the other members of the team over the years as they buy baggies from me, so lines of communication were wide open.

As a collector of Vintage Star Wars for over 20 years now, I have made some good friends in the hobby but the initial thread that Frank posted has now taken a turn towards that of a lynch mob. In the past week I've been shocked by just how many comments of a more personal nature there are, about my family, home or even the cars I drive. All in reply to Frank's original post about fake baggies, can we please keep to the facts and concerns about baggies?

I was interviewed on the Vintage Rebellion Podcast to address the accusation publicly & I tried to do just that. I hope everyone interested has taken the time to listen to it. Since it aired it's become apparent to me that my lack of presence on the Star Wars Forum UK is just adding to people's concerns. So now I've joined SWFUK to post this open letter.

Whilst my original intention was to take all my baggies to Frank for inspection, upon reflection I feel that an independent assessment by UKG would be the best option all round. So on Tuesday 17th January 2017, I spoke with Steve Ward of UKG at length and he has agreed to inspect EVERY baggie I have both in both my own personal collection & all my spares (i.e. ones I have to sell/trade).

We feel this is the best way to identify any fakes I may have picked up over the years and therefore remove any doubt over the baggies I chose to sell off in the future. Until Steve's report is complete ALL my baggie sales are on hold.

Therefore, so that Steve can inspect them, I ask anyone reading this who has bought ANY of the following baggie types from me in the past to you can return them to me by the end of January for a full refund. SW-a / SW-b / SW-d / ESB-b / ROTJ-a / ESB-H / ESB-H (extra wide) / POTF figures in Palitoy-a & Meccano w/Red Sticker.

Once the audit of over 650 baggies has been completed I will be posting a full list of the baggies Steve deems fake, which will be opened and sold as mint loose figures on my stall at future Farthest From events.

I thank you in advance for your patience while we await the facts & assure you that the truth will out.

Yours sincerely

Jeff Glanville

Thankyou for making the effort Jeff. I

Whilst understanding the desire to get these approved, I would ask how will UKG know that these are all your baggies, and how you will evidence the ones checked are the ones sold? How will you going forward ensure that the baggies you sell are not fakes?

Be a good idea if this could be kept thread could be kept sane to ensure people get the outcome they wish.

Lets not chase the OP away with your '2 cents'.

Edit- this post is not a response to the second post. :wink:

Ok,

Jeff, several allegations have been made against you and a large amount of evidence has been posted. Take all the **** out of that thread there are some fairly serious examples of shady practices that have been alleged:

To name a few.

Shill bidding
Multiple eBay accounts
Knowingly reselling known suspect stock

This is now not just about these baggies, a lot about your character has also been brought into question.

It is commendable that you appear to be trying to make good on your previous issues, and that you are involving a third party, but will you take time to look at other evidence that has been gathered and answer further issues, particularly involving other practices that have been alleged.

It is not a case of answer in this thread, or expecting an instant answer, but are you willing to commit to looking at this evidence and addressing issues raised, either yourself or by means of mediation if necessary.

Thank you for coming to respond.

Jeff, thanks for joining the forum and posting. I appreciate your statement, but unfortunately apart from denying any wrong doing it does not answer any of the claims.

Your statement says you have not been selling resealed baggies. That is simply not true, see this evidence thread for dozens of examples of 100% fake baggies that you have personally sold:

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568

You also say that you have not knowingly sold fake baggies. Again there is hard evidence of this, see here:

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568#p433111
http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568&start=15#p433548


There is less concrete evidence that suggests you could have been making them eg buying loose light blue Boba Fetts and then suddenly having baggies for sale, although that is only circumstantial unlike the above two accusations.

Offering refunds and to grade your remaining stock is a positive step, but the above needs addressing. Although there is no hard evidence of you actually making fake baggies, I'm afraid there is concrete evidence of the other two accusations so denying it only discredits you further.

Jeff - would you make your ebay accounts feedback public so people can see what the various accounts have been buying? That might help your case, as at the moment it looks like your second account has been buying lots of SW stuff.

Jeff, will be interesting to see your responses to the specific evidence and in particular all info you can provide on where these fake baggies came from.

But for now I'm having a hard time even believing you wrote the statement above. After having read some of your email responses to people that have been shared on the other thread your writing style is completely different to the statement. As a contrast read the statement and then read this, written a week ago by Jeff on facebook:

Hi Guys sorry i keep on tapping the enter bar ,Sorry. Not used to these soical media pages although its good to keep an eye what my family and friends are doing but thats it really. My wife set me up on here as she has done on other sites, I think some of you have tryed to contacted me on in the past but had no reply (Sorry) again tec is beyond me and only do Emails and Texts or phone calls.Im here to say my piece and weather your with me or not thats for you to decide? Some of you will know me as i have sold shed loads of starwars stuff on and off ebay for near 10 years now. Not just baggie, I have been collecting mainly starwars baggies since the late 90;s and had at one point over 1000 baggies . I have sold many to some of you guys and become very good friends having the plesure of meeting some of you recently in person at the FF show .My good friend asked me along to sell my excess stock last year and i have been welcomed back since. I hope this issues does not damage this relation i have with these guys as im so upset with how this has been done .Now im here to say my piece as most of all know by now im being outted as a faker. I had been accumalating baggies mainly via ebay and private sales and recently over the last 3 years been switching to collecting carded figs as i have noted alot of my bagged figures were starting to perish/spilt /dry ect and decided that i would start to sell all these excess stock i have as really do i need these many baggies sitting in boxes in the loft?? So thats the main reason i have sold so many not that i have been making them thats maddness . I have sold many of these so called fakes to Frank mewesway back and he accepted them so had no reason to deem them as any thing but genuine. I know one of my soures was a guy called Gratson cant remeber his first name but spent £1000's of pounds with him which is the source of most of my SW-a , b and d, which the text is not right i been told and only found out last night

Bonsai_Tree_Ent said:

Jeff, will be interesting to see your responses to the specific evidence and in particular all info you can provide on where these fake baggies came from.

But for now I'm having a hard time even believing you wrote the statement above. After having read some of your email responses to people that have been shared on the other thread your writing style is completely different to the statement. As a contrast read the statement and then read this, written a week ago by Jeff on facebook:

Hi Guys sorry i keep on tapping the enter bar ,Sorry. Not used to these soical media pages although its good to keep an eye what my family and friends are doing but thats it really. My wife set me up on here as she has done on other sites, I think some of you have tryed to contacted me on in the past but had no reply (Sorry) again tec is beyond me and only do Emails and Texts or phone calls.Im here to say my piece and weather your with me or not thats for you to decide? Some of you will know me as i have sold shed loads of starwars stuff on and off ebay for near 10 years now. Not just baggie, I have been collecting mainly starwars baggies since the late 90;s and had at one point over 1000 baggies . I have sold many to some of you guys and become very good friends having the plesure of meeting some of you recently in person at the FF show .My good friend asked me along to sell my excess stock last year and i have been welcomed back since. I hope this issues does not damage this relation i have with these guys as im so upset with how this has been done .Now im here to say my piece as most of all know by now im being outted as a faker. I had been accumalating baggies mainly via ebay and private sales and recently over the last 3 years been switching to collecting carded figs as i have noted alot of my bagged figures were starting to perish/spilt /dry ect and decided that i would start to sell all these excess stock i have as really do i need these many baggies sitting in boxes in the loft?? So thats the main reason i have sold so many not that i have been making them thats maddness . I have sold many of these so called fakes to Frank mewesway back and he accepted them so had no reason to deem them as any thing but genuine. I know one of my soures was a guy called Gratson cant remeber his first name but spent £1000's of pounds with him which is the source of most of my SW-a , b and d, which the text is not right i been told and only found out last night

Click to expand...

You beat me to it, Matt.

Of course Jeff's response is a great positive step towards making this right, but to me the response reads like someone who got caught doing something he knows he shouldn't have done - whether he made them or knowingly sold fakes ones sold by others (it was either of these options, neither of which is good) - and now he is trying to make things right only because he got caught. Like I said, it's better than getting caught and not trying to make things right, but it still doesn't answer any of the questions and evidence posted.

And to glob on to what Matt said, the most recent response from Jeff looks like it was written by a lawyer or at the very least a very good writer. While it's curious that at the same time Jeff's response posted to Echo was filled with grammatical errors, run on sentences, and otherwise looks like it was written by a totally different person. And please don't try to explain that difference by using something like Jeff's own words in the Echo post: "[I'm] [n]ot used to these soical [sic] media pages." Writing a response on a social media page is simply typing. Just like responding on a forum is merely typing.

Time will tell if Jeff lives up to his promises, and it can't be ignored that if he does so it goes far towards making things right. But it certainly doesn't answer any of the many allegations against him.

I was going to stay out of this thread, as my concerns have been addressed already (writing style, flat out denial in the face of hard evidence, etc).

However, I have one serious question.

Why will you only accept returns over the next week and a half? Does that include postage time (ie. must arrive to your mailbox by Jan. 31)? What happens after that? Are you going to give anyone who returns something Feb. 1 or later a hard time, fake or not? If they're fake and you sold them, any affected buyers deserve a refund with no end date to return them by...

Ian

Ross, you didn't write it for him did you?

I'm of the belief that a man can find redemption if he genuinely wants it. Today on the news Martin McGuiness who began life as an IRA terrorist and has ended his career as a bonafide peace maker in N.Ireland.

Jeff, I'd say to you be 100% honest. Don't turn inward into more and more lies. That is not good for your conscience or your soul.

Ross_Barr said:

Bonsai_Tree_Ent said:

Jeff, will be interesting to see your responses to the specific evidence and in particular all info you can provide on where these fake baggies came from.

But for now I'm having a hard time even believing you wrote the statement above. After having read some of your email responses to people that have been shared on the other thread your writing style is completely different to the statement. As a contrast read the statement and then read this, written a week ago by Jeff on facebook:

Hi Guys sorry i keep on tapping the enter bar ,Sorry. Not used to these soical media pages although its good to keep an eye what my family and friends are doing but thats it really. My wife set me up on here as she has done on other sites, I think some of you have tryed to contacted me on in the past but had no reply (Sorry) again tec is beyond me and only do Emails and Texts or phone calls.Im here to say my piece and weather your with me or not thats for you to decide? Some of you will know me as i have sold shed loads of starwars stuff on and off ebay for near 10 years now. Not just baggie, I have been collecting mainly starwars baggies since the late 90;s and had at one point over 1000 baggies . I have sold many to some of you guys and become very good friends having the plesure of meeting some of you recently in person at the FF show .My good friend asked me along to sell my excess stock last year and i have been welcomed back since. I hope this issues does not damage this relation i have with these guys as im so upset with how this has been done .Now im here to say my piece as most of all know by now im being outted as a faker. I had been accumalating baggies mainly via ebay and private sales and recently over the last 3 years been switching to collecting carded figs as i have noted alot of my bagged figures were starting to perish/spilt /dry ect and decided that i would start to sell all these excess stock i have as really do i need these many baggies sitting in boxes in the loft?? So thats the main reason i have sold so many not that i have been making them thats maddness . I have sold many of these so called fakes to Frank mewesway back and he accepted them so had no reason to deem them as any thing but genuine. I know one of my soures was a guy called Gratson cant remeber his first name but spent £1000's of pounds with him which is the source of most of my SW-a , b and d, which the text is not right i been told and only found out last night

Click to expand...

You beat me to it, Matt.

Of course Jeff's response is a great positive step towards making this right, but to me the response reads like someone who got caught doing something he knows he shouldn't have done - whether he made them or knowingly sold fakes ones sold by others (it was either of these options, neither of which is good) - and now he is trying to make things right only because he got caught. Like I said, it's better than getting caught and not trying to make things right, but it still doesn't answer any of the questions and evidence posted.

And to glob on to what Matt said, the most recent response from Jeff looks like it was written by a lawyer or at the very least a very good writer. While it's curious that at the same time Jeff's response posted to Echo was filled with grammatical errors, run on sentences, and otherwise looks like it was written by a totally different person. And please don't try to explain that difference by using something like Jeff's own words in the Echo post: "[I'm] [n]ot used to these soical [sic] media pages." Writing a response on a social media page is simply typing. Just like responding on a forum is merely typing.

Time will tell if Jeff lives up to his promises, and it can't be ignored that if he does so it goes far towards making things right. But it certainly doesn't answer any of the many allegations against him.

Click to expand...

Is it really that big a deal that he's sought help to compose his response? Surely its better to have something that is at least readable over what was posted on facebook?

The evidence certainly seems damning so I think at the very least Jeff needed to formulate a measured response.

That said, for all its structure, his response still doesn't really cover the claims that have been made. He's still saying he didn't do what he's accused of without countering any of the specific accusations against him.

Time will tell I guess.

Oh and just realised this is my first post after lurking for a while!

It doesnt really matter if his Mrs or whoever put his reply into paragraphs and sorted some typos, IMO. As long as the sentiment and words came from him I'm cool with whatever.

I'm glad he didn't right the word 'quack' or he would be accused of getting a duck to write it.




Maybe there is a beast.........maybe it's only us..........

Eject.

Yes its good Jeff has now responded on the forum its better for everyone involved.
Its better to keep everything civil now and not say something in the heat of the moment. Alot has been written on this thread with people looking answers because it has gotten very serious.
He has now joined so he can reply to everything that has been written.

Grant_C said:

I'm glad he didn't right the word 'quack' or he would be accused of getting a duck to write it.




Maybe there is a beast.........maybe it's only us..........

Eject.

Click to expand...

What was that about 'your 2 cents'! :lol:

Ok, it's fine giving refunds for people on SWFUK who read this. But what about all the people who've bought from Jeff on FB or eBay, at FF and anywhere else they've been sold? Isn't it entirely possible that there are hundreds of people with little or no hope of knowing about a return date of next week, or even that there's a problem in the first place? Feels like a (welcome) gesture to pacify a small (vocal) section of collectors while potentially leaving a much larger section oblivious. What are you going to do about those people Jeff? Presumably as you've demonstrated you don't have the knowledge to identify fakes yourself over a number of years you'll only sell graded baggies in future?

Grant_C said:

I'm glad he didn't right the word 'quack' or he would be accused of getting a duck to write it.




Maybe there is a beast.........maybe it's only us..........

Eject.

Click to expand...

People are suspicious mate, and do you not agree they have every right to be? We are hearing from people on the other thread who have found themselves thousands out of pocket from deals With Jeff.

This man has a lot to answer for. He needs to answer for it, or do you feel everyone should just lay off and let him be?

jedisearcher said:

Ok, it's fine giving refunds for people on SWFUK who read this. But what about all the people who've bought from Jeff on FB or eBay, at FF and anywhere else they've been sold? Isn't it entirely possible that there are hundreds of people with little or no hope of knowing about a return date of next week, or even that there's a problem in the first place? Feels like a (welcome) gesture to pacify a small (vocal) section of collectors while potentially leaving a much larger section oblivious. What are you going to do about those people Jeff? Presumably as you've demonstrated you don't have the knowledge to identify fakes yourself over a number of years you'll only sell graded baggies in future?

Click to expand...

He has all the details from his ebay sales, to make this right for everyone involved.

Do we know if this is actually Jeff posting?

Bootyhunter said:

Do we know if this is actually Jeff posting?

Click to expand...

Fair question, anyone could grab that handle/user name and sign-up... we have a history of attracting cranks and trolls don't we...
Maybe Frank or one of the podcast team could ask a question or two by PM that only Jeff could know to confirm and validate.

No one should be surprised though that a chap in this position has taken time to draft a more formal and appropriately written response though; no way that a solicitor wrote it, maybe under advisement of a more educated, skilled wordsmith, but nothing more IMO

newswseller said:

He has all the details from his ebay sales, to make this right for everyone involved.

Click to expand...

100% correct.

Has he indicated he will? 100% not.

If it's even him.

Bare in mind you dont usually get the option to type in paragraphs on FB,

After all this time though that was a very short response. And whos to say he will send all is fakes in to Steve, most prob already opened alot by now just to get rid of evidence (not that i am suggesting for a second this has happened but just thinking aloud)

Anyways good luck if you intend to put things right

Can't see how sending anything to UKG would help right now?

A) Theoretically speaking, couldn't you just Pick N' choose what you wanted UKG to look at? So in my opinion, it's a bit pointless.
B) If UKG have already graded any suspicious baggies, then really it would be like the blind leading the blind.
C) If you were to open any suspicious baggies, then will you be checking them for any touch ups? :wink:

First up I just want to say I don't think it matters if this is grammatically better than previous messages he has written, if he's had someone help him then fair enough, don't see that as an issue. The good thing is Jeff (and it is definitely him posting) has come on here to broach the subject.

For me though, Jeff has not answered any of the queries or questions or allegations of the evidence that is building up in the other thread. Just by responding "I am not manufacturing baggies, selling resealed baggies or even knowingly re-selling fake baggies" is not am acceptable response and I hope now he has decided to engage the community on SWFUK that he does just that and answer all questions, although lets keep them to topic as I agree his private life is his own and shouldn't be discussed in any of these threads.

Whilst having arranged to take all your baggies to UKG to be verified is a good starting point, I think stating that people only have until the end of January to return any fakes is appalling and no time limit should be set. If you've sold numerous fake items then they all need to be dealt with accordingly, regardless if this ends up being 1st February or later. I do understand though that its unfair to have to be refunding baggie items that are legit. I wonder of it would be possible for another thread on here where people can post their baggies they have purchased from you on there and then maybe Frank or Marc Carraway or anyone else with baggie knowledge can identify what is fake, then these items can be offered up for refund???

What I do think needs addressing whilst this audit of your figures is undertaken is some answers to the questions on the other thread.
A few I'd like to hear answers to are as follows;

1/ On the podcast you state that you have never sold a red text baggie on ebay, yet evidence shows that it was sold around 20 months ago from your account. I know you will probably state that you have forgotten this sale, but I feel that this wasn't that long ago for it to slip the mind and also it's totally different from the other baggies being sold, so surely the sale would be fixed firmly in your mind.

2/ You also clearly state several times on podcast interview that you only sell bits off from your collection and you don't sell for monetary reasons. yet an email which you sent to frank states you telling him that you're picking up as many blue Snaggletooth baggies as you can as you make £60-£80 profit on each one.

3/ I don't know anything about baggies but the rare Fett baggie discussed on the other thread clearly needs addressing, as I understand it, very rare baggie, you're shown or given details of it and then months later you have five to sell? That does seem fishy

4/ Several examples of you being told a baggie is fake by email or message on the other thread, then evidence showing you have sold the same figure months later? I know on a couple of responses shown over the other thread has you not totally agreeing about Franks opinion on some being fake, do you have evidence where you have double checked these items by another baggie expert, of have you sold them against the advice?

5/ You state on the podcast you've only sold 15-20 fakes, yet the evidence that has been accumulated so far shows that the number is way in advance of that.

The other thread has loads more queries and if you are totally innocent like you state then I suggest you get online as often as you can over the coming days and start addressing the issues.

For me, I don't believe you are making these. I do believe you have sold fakes, I think you've admitted that, the question that really needs answering is if you are selling these knowingly. At the moment the evidence points very much to the fact that you are aware of what you're doing. I really hope you prove everyone wrong as I love to see the good in people.

If you have been knowingly selling them, then I think it would be a stand up thing to do to admit it, apologies and make plans on how to put things right, going to UKG is a start. If you continue to deny it and then proved you did know then that will be that, but admittance to your part would maybe/hopefully see the community forgive you and welcome you back to the hobby over time.

Like I said, I don't believe you're making these items, but I do think you can help the investigation team discover who is by offering them a list of your suppliers and what has been bought where. This is still a huge factor which needs to be discovered.

Do the right thing pal, unless you're totally innocent then fight your corner, but supply better evidence than just I've never done this.

Great post Stu. It sums up my thoughts too on this as it currently stands.

If Jeff is not the originator of the fakes/ reseals/ repaints whatever.... one would think he should have no problem outting the seller who he bought these "bulks" of figures from, since obviously that seller is a bad seller who (sort of) put him in this position.

SublevelStudios said:

Great post Stu. It sums up my thoughts too on this as it currently stands.

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

RobbieZombbie said:

If Jeff is not the originator of the fakes/ reseals/ repaints whatever.... one would think he should have no problem outting the seller who he bought these "bulks" of figures from, since obviously that seller is a bad seller who (sort of) put him in this position.

Click to expand...

Stu's post is very good but Robbie also makes a very good point

Yeah, take them all to UKG, they can spot a fake a mile away......That's why I have 5 graded toytoni's in my ******* loft.

edd_jedi said:

Jeff, thanks for joining the forum and posting. I appreciate your statement, but unfortunately apart from denying any wrong doing it does not answer any of the claims.

Your statement says you have not been selling resealed baggies. That is simply not true, see this evidence thread for dozens of examples of 100% fake baggies that you have personally sold:

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568

You also say that you have not knowingly sold fake baggies. Again there is hard evidence of this, see here:

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568#p433111
http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32568&start=15#p433548


There is less concrete evidence that suggests you could have been making them eg buying loose light blue Boba Fetts and then suddenly having baggies for sale, although that is only circumstantial unlike the above two accusations.

Offering refunds and to grade your remaining stock is a positive step, but the above needs addressing. Although there is no hard evidence of you actually making fake baggies, I'm afraid there is concrete evidence of the other two accusations so denying it only discredits you further.

Click to expand...

Very well worded, exactly to the point and objective.

A simple response to this is really all thats needed IMO.

Lets keep it civilized or like Grant says all we'll achieve is to chase Jeff away.